Understanding the National Digital Twin programme (NDTp)

Hello 🖐️ I am an Architecture Graduate, interested in Digital Twin, also looking for an internship. I would appreciate if anyone knows companies that recruit in this domain. Thank you ! 🙃

If you read carefully the DT promotion documents is all about only the capitalist VC and Ivory Tower academic research supported and NOTHING FOR GENERAL PUBLIC. VIVA BREXIT - NO ANY TECH infrastructure support for SME and innovative communities.

Who are you? A developer now working mainly in business development. What is your industry and profession? I lead of digital business development for RED Scientific, an SME consultancy with a broad scope including modelling & simulation, software projects and OA/OR. Much of our work is for the public sector. Where do you plan to use your new Digital Twin Knowledge? Personally/professionally? Professionally. RED understand modelling and simulation but are at the start of our DT journey. Why have you decided to join the DTHub? To grow my knowledge of DTs and to network. Have you participated in any of our meetups, or events? No. Do you have any examples of work that you have done using Digital Twins? Sadly not at the moment.

Does this help? Elevator pitch (also known as an elevator speech) is a short, persuasive speech you use to introduce yourself, your product, or your company. Its purpose is to explain the concept quickly and clearly to spark interest in who you are and what you do.

The Building Standards Division of Scottish Government would be interested in how we can help ensure statutory requirements (societies minimum requirements for buildings) can be embedded in Digital Twins. This goes beyond the Golden Thread requirements, including energy performance and sustainability for example, and is relevant to jurisdictions out with England, where statutory systems have similar aims, but different mechanisms. Digital Twins should be the place where the memories of compliance with statutory requirements reside, in an accessible and robust way.

Hey Steven! Nice talking to you yesterday. And thank you for sharing all the valuable information to help me with my project. Really appreciate it. Thanks and kind regards, Ajeeth

I have just started exploring. So far it looks like the definition of DT is not nailed down completely. It is still a malleable concept. The definition and expectations change depending on what industry one is looking at. For some, a project is DT if it just communicates data from IoT devices in a simplex or duplex manner and then presents that data to the users via various channels; for others a full blown simulation that continuously syncs with the environment it is replicating constitutes DT. So the opinions and definitions vary. One approach to standardisation of DT both for interoperability and use of common lingo would be to define "profiles" for DT standard as it is done by some of the other standards bodies, such as Khronos(which looks after graphics and other standards for computing devices: https://www.khronos.org). If we look at two graphics standards developed by them, OpenGL and Vulkan, we notice that there are two other complementary standards for safety-critical industries corresponding to these main standards, OpenGL SC and Vulkan SC. A similar approach to DT standardisation could be taken. There will be a core standard that every DT project will have to follow and implement, and then there will be additional profiles for other use cases. That way the industries will know what profiles to look at for their specific use case. When I think about the project* I have in mind, I realise that it will fit into the DT ecosystem. But then I start wondering how and where does it exactly fit and what exactly should I be looking at to exploit the benefits of DT standardisation. As the NDT endeavour is at a relatively nascent stage, it will help both for standardisation and implementation efforts to formalise the structure of the process itself from the start. This will not only help in quickly scaling the efforts in the future as more participants join, but it will also become easy to consistently evaluate all the outcomes of each effort. These are just some initial thoughts I had after going through some of the available resources on DT Hub. But as these are early days, I am sure that as we move forward, some of what I have suggested above will naturally evolve as a formal practice(I see this already happening in some form with the Defence and BIM "networks"). * The project I am ideating on falls under the EdTech domain. I am thinking of using AR/VR/MR/XR for promoting TEAMS(Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths and Science) subjects using space exploration, science and technology as a theme, similar to what an Indian company Punekar Initiatives(https://www.punekarinitiatives.com) is doing; but without building theme-parks and instead using spaces available at local space and education organisations/institutions in the country. That will make it more scalable and adaptable; but also make it easily accessible to all students across the country.

Background What is The Hartree Centre? The Hartree Centre (part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council) is the UK's centre of excellence for challenge-led innovation and collaborative R&D in advanced digital technologies. The Hartree Centre specialises in HPC, AI, and Data Science, and is home to the UK's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to solving industrial challenges. The Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI) is a new £210m collaborative partnership between The Hartree Centre and IBM Research. The purpose of the programme is to: Enable businesses and public sector organisations to adopt digital innovations, such as AI and quantum computing, by providing a dynamic and supportive expert environment. Provide an environment where UK organisations of all sizes can explore the latest technologies, develop proofs-of-concept and apply them to industry and public sector challenges for productivity, innovation and economic growth. Help organisations navigate the possibilities, and de-risk investment, of new technologies. Support organisations in planning and taking their next steps in their digital transformation journey. Important: We are looking for challenges where off-the-shelf solutions are currently not available – think TRL 3-6, commonly known as ‘The Valley of Death’. HNCDI is structured in to four work streams, these are the access points into the programme for organisations. Work Streams Explore: Proof of Concept What: Applying digital and AI technologies to industry challenges. The Explore work stream will deliver 104 projects, each being up to 18 person months of support over a 9-month (max) period. Benefit of Participating: Provides the opportunity, through (zero-cost) proof of concepts to explore and evaluate data-driven AI technologies to help enhance your productivity and technical capability. How to Engage: Initial enquires through Hartree’s Business Development Team. Contact joseph.weston@stfc.ac.uk Cost to Participating Organisations: Participation in Explore projects will incur zero costs. Outcome: Provides the opportunity to understand ‘does this technology work with my data on my use case’. Excelerate: Application What: Embedding digital solutions across industry and public sector. The Excelerate work stream will deliver 32 projects, each being up to 42 months of support over a 14-month (max) period. Benefit of Participating: Enables (further) development and implementation of practical AI and data driven solutions within your organisation. A case of ‘I want it! How do I integrate this into my current work-flow?’ How to Engage: Initial enquires through Hartree’s Business Development Team. Contact joseph.weston@stfc.ac.uk Cost to Participating Organisations: Each organisation participating in an Excelerate project will be required to contribute ~£300k. This contribution can be in-kind (data, staff time), in-cash or a combination of both. Outcome: Implementation of practical AI and data driven solutions in to an organisations work-flows. Emerge: Future Resilience What: Driving future investment decisions in emerging computing technologies such as quantum computing. The Emerge work stream will deliver 20 projects, each being up to 18 person months of support over a 9-month (max) period. Benefit of Participating: Knowing how to prepare for and when to invest in, the right emerging digital technologies such as quantum computing. How to Engage: Initial enquires through Hartree’s Business Development Team. Contact joseph.weston@stfc.ac.uk Cost to Participating Organisations: Participation in Emerging technologies projects will incur zero costs. Outcome: Helping organisations to drive future investment decisions in emerging technologies such as quantum computing. Explain: Skills What: Helping participating organisations advance their digital skills through providing industry relevant and accessible training in areas such as high performance computing, data analytics and AI. 5000 training places Over 55 training courses Multiple levels: Introductory, Learner, Independent User and Practitioner Delivery Method: Self Learning (Intro), Online, Hybrid Presentation (Learner, Ind. User) and Presential only (Practitioner) Benefit of Participating: Provides the opportunity to tackle the digital skills gap within your organisation and widens your talent pool. How to Engage: Initial enquires through Hartree’s Business Development Team. Contact joseph.weston@stfc.ac.uk Cost to Participating Organisations: Access to the training courses in Explain will incur zero costs to the participating organisations. Outcome: Increased digital readiness for organisations across the UK For more info visit www.hartree.stfc.ac.uk or contact Joseph Weston joseph.weston@stfc.ac.uk

Hi Kihwan, we would be happy to present on "Large Scale Infrastructure Digital Twins". Contact directly alex@uevo.com

Thank you Kirsten, I'll have a look through.

Hi Mark, Thank you for your links. I'm so happy to see these visions like: (A paradigm shift is required: we must recognise infrastructure as a system of systems and manage it accordingly.) Your documents also validate our project idea as most of the details are in our research database as well. What we try to establish an operating system of the society to help them in collaboration and collective actions based on TRUE information. As our companies already have methods, tools to manage them operation but for the community do not have similar opportunity yet. That is why we would extend the present limited functions of social networks to give tools for the society for a better way to interact with each other across different segments. From foresight to policy improvement and recommendation. Seems to me our project find the HOMETOWN in this community. Would be great to have a chat in the near future. Kind regards Janos Deak

Let's talk about - Digital twins in Promoting for Sustainability https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/citizen-social-science-age-alpha-generation-humanner-/

Am I wrong or just I can't see any connection with a local council and / or community - COLLABORATION - in this Digital Twins program? Where is any democratic function for local consultation?

An example was given of applying accounting principles which justified cutting down trees to encourage growth of a spagnum bog because Spagnum is apparently 200 times more effiient at carbon capture and water retention than a wooded forest covering the same ground area and faster growing.

The Good Homes Alliance seeks to drive up standards, performance and quality in new homes built in the UK. We have developed a concept built upon existing IP that digitises an assured performance process to enable a comprehensive outcome that will enable net zero (and other desirable outcomes such as health and wellbeing of occupants) to be met and verified. This concept would address a number of issues currently being discussed and deabted by the investment/finance/insurance/warranty sectors and would upskill design teams and constructors because of the built in on demand training that accompanies the app-concept. The concept is called NetZeTT (Net Zero Tool and Training) and has an existing set of project partners, what it doesn't yet have is funding, if any potential funders are interested in this project please reply.

Today marks the DT Hub's first birthday and we are celebrating the incredible successes that we have had as a community. To mark the occasion we are pleased to present the DT Hub's first Annual Benchmark Report. This first report aims to share with you, our community, the progress and learnings that we have made this past year. You will find a retrospective summary and analysis of the year as well as highlights, key findings and recommendations for the year ahead. In keeping with our motto of 'Learn by doing and progress through sharing' we would like to invite you to share your thoughts and let us know what you think as we plan for the coming year. Below are four questions we’d like to invite you to answer which will give us an idea on how we can make the Hub better for you. The survey is anonymous so tell us what you think.

Thanks, Tom. Some people might be interested in this Forbes magazine interview with Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer at Highways England https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglaslaney/2021/02/01/data-valuation-paves-the-road-to-the-future-for-highways-england/?sh=4510bb46612c&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=109498131&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9xpRbsKEFsqfxsup9dXUfcWRvrxHE687_X-_FPyl93QAm2b520GA-mCmlwizF_e8UyDiX908Lbfr2dPkVcCnumXnwADw&utm_content=109498131&utm_source=hs_email

TechUK’s Digital Twins Working Group (DTWG) published a landmark report- ‘Unlocking Value Across the UK’s Digital Twin Ecosystem’- on Thursday 25th February. The purpose of this report is to drive consensus around terminology, highlight key prizes associated with digital twinning across the UK, and to set out strategic recommendations for industry and Government as to how the UK’s digital twin ecosystem can progress and evolve long-term. The report also sets out a handful of recommendations, including that there should be a cross-cutting, interdisciplinary co-ordinating body to promote their use. It would identify common information requirements and capability gaps, provide guidance on codes of conduct in the use of digital twins, and develop incentives such as tax credits or innovation funding. This would come with a 10-year public investment of £150-200 million to support innovation, adoption and diffusion, and strong roles for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). A further boost could be provided by an online procurement portal – the cost of which is estimated at up to £1.5 million – that would make digital twin offerings on the market more visible and less complex, and lead to improvements in their quality and affordability. Other recommendations are for a series of strategic demonstrator projects to show the value and identify barriers to the adoption of digital twins; to identify the skills needed to support their use; and for UKRI to run a demonstrator project on how the concept can support the aim for net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Hi IMF Community, You may find this workshop interesting: "4-Dimensionalism in Large Scale Data Sharing and Integration" Full details and Registration can be found at: https://gateway.newton.ac.uk/event/tgmw80 . The workshop will feature six presentations on state-of-the–art research from experts on 4-Dimensionalism in large scale data sharing and integration followed by a chaired Presenter's Panel. Each presentation will cover aspects of 4-Dimensionalism from the basics to Top Level Ontologies and Co-Constructional Ontology with each answering the question posed by the previous presentation.

Greeks bearing gifts .. providing context Today's 2 minute block from Frazer-Nash https://www.fnc.co.uk/giving-context

@Nigel@CLA, thank you. We are just working up the scope of the demonstrator right now. What we are thinking about is something that will show the benefit of cross-sector information sharing, with a focus on improving net-zero decision making.

Hi @tombartley, thank you for this. I'm glad you support the general premise, and I agree aspects like Applications (Uses) and Observable elements are important. The goal of the workshop on the 11th is to test/challenge these headings with the community so Benefits may fall out. As I mentioned in the previous post, I've (shamelessly) taken the clause structure from the manufacturing standard and adapted the headings to suit. As the scope relates to an overview and principles standard (like ISO 19650-1) it behaves more like a guide to inform further standardization as opposed to a code of practice or a specification; meaning that a clause on benefits *could* work as guidance can include both recommendations as well as statements of fact. However, just as Jeff Goldblum says in Jurassic Park: I think it'll depend as to whether the benefits we can identify relate specifically to the applications, or are more generic benefits. Fully agree that the standard needs to formalize terminology. This has been a strong theme from the CDBB team too.

@HenryFT the UK is certainly doing things but I've noticed interesting activity in Australia and US, particularly the Digital Twin Consortium. Where the latter organisation scores highly for me is that they are strongly leveraging decades of digital experience in the manufacturing sector - which I see as distinctly lacking in most discussions in the UK. By the way, call it a hunch if you like but it's just the way I walk.